Masstige consumption, brand happiness, and brand advocacy: A service perspective

Abstract

Despite the call in literature, the masstige brands in the service industry remain unexplored exposing an important literature gap. This study employed the masstige theory to explore and conceptualize luxury service brands. An initial pre‐test study was used to identify the masstige brands in the service category. Study 2 comprised a quantitative survey on 358 identified masstige brand users for two purposes: (i) To determine the masstige mean scores of the specified brands. (ii) To examine the association between masstige consumption, brand happiness, and brand advocacy for masstige brands in the tourism and airline category. It was found that service masstige brand consumption does influence brand happiness, which further affects consumers' brand advocacy. Further, the masstige consumption and brand happiness relation was moderated by internal motivations but not external motivations. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Masstige buyers: Profile, perceived luxury values and purchase intentions

“…Consistent with previous research (e.g., Ganguly et al, 2023;Nobre et al, 2023;Purohit et al, 2023;Singh, 2023), this group of consumers seek enjoyable shopping experiences, pleasing atmospheric environments, exceptional performance, superior functionality and design. We also acknowledge that masstige buyers desire social approval, as suggested by prior studies (Das, Jebarajakirthy, & Sivapalan, 2022a;Granot et al, 2013;Gupta et al, 2023;Kastanakis & Balabanis, 2012;Zhang et al, 2023).…”

“…Masstige consumers also actively seek pleasurable experiences and engage in consumption as a means of indulgence, suggesting an emphasis on the hedonic value of luxury (Burhanudin, 2023;Das, Jebarajakirthy, & Sivapalan, 2022a;Ganguly et al, 2023;Goyal, 2020;Lee & Cho, 2023;Park et al, 2022;Purohit & Radia, 2022;Singh, 2023;Suzuki & Kanno, 2022). Additionally, several studies (Kumar et al, 2021;Nobre et al, 2023;Purohit et al, 2023) propose that masstige consumption leads to brand happiness.…”

Has the pandemic altered luxury consumption and marketing? A sectoral and thematic analysis

“…Biological/personal/ demographic (Bae & Jo, 2024;Creevey et al, 2022;Dhaliwal et al, 2020;Dubois et al, 2021;Kunz et al, 2020) Psychological factors (Creevey et al, 2022;Dubois et al, 2021;Gupta, Shin, & Jain, 2023;Gurzki & Woisetschläger, 2017;Husain et al, 2021;Siahtiri et al, 2022) Macro/structural factors (Dubois et al, 2021;Gurzki & Woisetschläger, 2017) Social cultural and intercultural factors (Arli et al, 2020;Dhaliwal et al, 2020;Gupta, Shin, & Jain, 2023;Gurzki & Woisetschläger, 2017;Husain et al, 2021;Sun et al, 2014;Tunçel, 2022) Branding (Bilro et al, 2022;Creevey et al, 2022;Dhaliwal et al, 2020;Dubois et al, 2021;Gupta, Shin, & Jain, 2023;Gurzki & Woisetschläger, 2017;Husain et al, 2021;Kola nska-Stronka & Krasa, 2023;Kunz et al, 2020;Purohit et al, 2023;Shimul & Phau, 2022;Siahtiri et al, 2022) Counterfeiting (Gurzki & Woisetschläger, 2017;Husain et al, 2021;Shan et al, 2022;Tunçel, 2022) Sustainability (Atkinson & Kang, 2021;Kunz et al, 2020;…”

Humanizing Metaverse: Psychological involvement and masstige value in retail versus tourism platforms

“…The middle-class user segment is expected to wield considerable economic influence in the market due to their increased purchasing power (Boisvert et al, 2023;Ho et al, 2023). While previous studies have made significant contributions to the understanding of masstige branding, marketing, and luxury consumption mainly delve into masstige with brand equity in the service industry (e.g., Alagarsamy et al, 2024;Das, Saha, & Roy, 2022;Kolanska-Stronka & Krasa, 2024;Purohit et al, 2024), this research takes a different direction, exploring how masstige values impact user behavior, avatar self-representation falsity, and regulatory message framing in immersive virtual environments. This approach offers a nuanced understanding of user interactions and behaviors within the evolving realm of the Metaverse, thereby contributing to a more comprehensive grasp of luxury consumption in digital spaces.…”